1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital image processing apparatus and an image recording apparatus equipped with such digital image processing apparatus, and more particularly to a digital image processing apparatus which is connectable with a storage medium storing a digital image captured by a digital camera and which can read out the digital image from the connected storage medium and can directly print the digital image.
The present invention also relates to an image recording apparatus which includes indication means to be used for uniquely designating a digital image recorded in a storage medium, which is capable of detecting a portion of a digital image considered to show a red-eye phenomenon within the digital image and which includes means that is capable of correcting, among candidates of the red-eye phenomenon, those only in positions designated by a user.
2. Related Background Art
There is already known a multi-function printer, integrating a scanner which reads an original image by a contact image sensor (CIS) and outputs a digital image to a personal computer, and a printer for recording, on a recording sheet, the digital image from the personal computer.
In such a multi-function printer, the scanner and the printer are integrated within a single casing, and the scanner and the printer are driven by a drive source formed by a single motor (for example, a stepping motor). Such multi-function printer has a copying function and an image scanning function, and, in such copying function, a drive system of the printer is activated simultaneously with the original reading operation.
For example in the copying operation, the contact image sensor of the scanner is driven by the drive source to read an image, and, after the image reading operation, the read image is internally converted into printable data, based on which a printer engine executes an image printing operation.
Also in recent years, digital cameras, capable of converting a captured image into a digital image and storing the thus converted digital image in a storage medium such as Compact Flash (registered trade name) card, have become popular, and there has been conceived a card-direct printing apparatus which integrates a digital image processing apparatus and a printer, and in which the Compact Flash card or the like can be mounted directly, without utilizing a personal computer, for the purpose of printing the digital image with a simple operation and in which a process for printing the digital image is activated when a power supply is turned on.
There has further been conceived a multi-function printer, which integrates the functions of the card-direct printing apparatus described above and the functions of the aforementioned multi-function printer within a single casing.
Incidentally, in the image capture with the digital camera, particularly in the case of capturing an image of a person with a flashlight in a dark environment, there is often observed a so-called red-eye phenomenon in which the pupils of eyes of the person appear in red color. Such a red-eye phenomenon is induced by the fact that the pupils of the eyes are opened because of the dark environment, whereby the flash light reaches, through the pupils, the retinas and is reflected therefrom to reach the camera. Such a red-eye phenomenon is facilitated by the fact that digital cameras are made smaller for portability, whereby the optical axis of the image capturing lens and that of the flashlight are positioned mutually close.
There has been conceived an apparatus capable, in response to a designation by the user of area(s) containing an eye or both eyes in an image involving the red-eye phenomenon, of automatically identifying the number and the positions of red-eyes in the area, and of correcting such red-eyes (for example cf. patent reference 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 09-322192).
Also conceived has been an apparatus including input means to be used for designating the positions of red-eyes to be corrected, by utilizing a fluorescent ink on a photographic print (for example cf. patent reference 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 09-044691).
However, the prior technology proposed in the patent reference 1 involves a limitation that the user has to utilize a coordinate input apparatus in designating an arbitrary position, and a limitation that a red-eye, present in the position designated by the user, may not be properly detected and corrected, though depending on the red-eye detecting algorithm.
For example, as an extreme case, there may result in a defect in such a situation where the user designates an area not containing red-eyes.
Also the prior technology proposed in the patent reference 2 involves a difficulty in detecting a portion marked with the fluorescent ink, and a limitation of resulting in a defect in a situation where the user designates an arbitrary position.